Closer
by thelesserknown221c
Summary: The platform raises Chell to the outside world, apart and unknowing of Aperture Laboratories. But, what now?
1. Closer

Closer. I could feel it. The surface.

The platform raised me up and up, the song of the serenading turrets still echoing in my head. I was getting closer. To freedom.

My thoughts turned to Wheatley. Poor little Wheatley. It pained me to think of him. I knew that what he had done was wrong, and that I should be mad with him, but I wasn't.

_Wheatley…_

The name begged to whisper from my lips. No. He wasn't gone. I _would _see him again. I had to. Wheatley. My Wheatley. My poor, corrupted Wheatley. He was anything but evil; he didn't deserve this fate he had been assigned.

_No…_

I blamed myself for not catching him in time, and always would.

I returned to my senses as the platform soon came to a stop. A door in front of me opened, and I shielded my eyes as sunlight penetrated the doorway. I stepped out to a golden sea of wheat, waving in a summer breeze. I heard a slam behind me, and turned to see a battered tin shed. I then heard rattling knocking from within, and soon a companion cube burst out of the door behind me. The door soon slammed shut once more. I went to the cube, and picked it up. I looked at it for a long time; an amount which I do not remember. It was blackened with age and use, and had a few scratches on the sides.

My thoughts shifted to Wheatley once more. Pain seared through me, as I clutched the cube harder and tears began to stream from my face.

Why is this my life? Why must I suffer this? Why? What do I do now? Where do I go? I have nowhere. I have no one.


	2. Chapter 2

Where am I? I set down the cube and looked around at the endless sea of grain around me. I couldn't see anything but golden wheat against a bright blue sky. Not knowing what to do, I turned to the shed and pulled at the door, but it didn't budge.

I thought freedom was what I had wanted. I thought it was all I needed. But I was wrong. What was I to do? All I could do now was live out my short sad life ahead of me, leaving all of Aperture behind.

I banged against the door and let out a scream. It still didn't move. I gave the door one final kick and sat down on the cube, my face in my hands and sobbing. Why is this my life? Who the hell am I and what purpose do I have? None. I knew that much. I raised my face from my hands and looked out across the field. It never seemed to end. How was I going to get out of here? Then I decided. I wasn't.

I would stay here, either till I could return to Aperture or die. I have no other purpose. There's nothing I can do from here. Perhaps back in the lab there was another exit, in a place where I could actually go somewhere.

I should hate GLaDOS after all we've been through, but to be honest, I didn't. In fact I pitied her. Who she is, who she used to be, and what she is to become.

I shook my head and turned to the shed again, leaning against the door. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be who and where I am. My life wouldn't be this much of a shitstorm if it weren't for her. My pity shifted to anger.

She wanted to harm Wheatley. She hated him with everything she had.

I resented her for that.

I thought of the time she called me her best friend. Anger shifted to sadness. It meant a lot to me, and still did. Because it was honest.

She told me she deleted Caroline and that she didn't really care for me, but I know that Caroline's still there, somewhere deep within GLaDOS's mind, still caring.

I wondered what future lay in front of GLaDOS; what was to become of her. She said she had found two other robots built specifically for testing, but I still had to wonder. Even with the vast warehouses of parts, I still imagined that at some point it must come to an end. What would she do then? I couldn't imagine what would happen to her, and I didn't want to.

I stood up and looked around once more. Nothing but wheat surrounded me. I watched as a bird flew across the sky ahead of me.

It made me think of Wheatley and his use of the bird eggs to stop the door, and the mother bird attacking him. I giggled at the thought, but the laugh soon turned to a sob.

I missed him; so much. I wanted Wheatley back; sweet, adorable Wheatley. Not hateful, power-hungry Wheatley, but the sweet little idiotic core who did his best to help me escape. Which in the end, he did.

I choked and wiped my eyes. I wanted the pain to end. I didn't want memories of Wheatley and GLaDOS to bring me pain; I wanted to laugh and think fondly of them. But I couldn't. Anger began to surge within me.

Why did I have to suffer this? Why couldn't I just live a normal life like everyone else on this damn planet?

I went to the shed and punched the door. A surge of pain seared through my fist as I let out a cry, and blood began to well from my knuckles. I sat down on the cube once more and sobbed with my face in my hands.

What future did I have? Why should I even try to live on after all that had happened?

I stood up. I decided that I would, no matter what. I picked up the cube and began walking into the field, leaving the shed and my painful memories behind.

I walked and walked for what seemed like miles. Everywhere I went, all I could see was wheat all around me.

I began to lose hope, and turned back to the direction in which I came, where the shed would be.

Night began to fall as I caught distant sight of the shed. A faint blue glow emitted from the shed from the vast laboratory below. When I had still been in the lab, I had no concept of day or night; it wasn't like I had any way of telling. It didn't matter anyway; I hardly slept from the adrenaline gas GLaDOS circulated. Now that I had been exposed to the fresh air of the outside world, I no longer felt any rush of energy bursting through me, and began to become very drowsy.

I had nowhere to sleep, short of the ground. I gave the shed door one last tug, and when it didn't open, I just plopped down on the ground in front of it and closed my eyes, resting my head against the tin door.

I immediately fell asleep.


	3. Falling

I awoke not in the wheat field, but in a dimly lit test chamber. The room was closed and had no obstacle; just one large room of white panels with a door on the other end. In the corner beside me lay a portal gun, and I quickly picked it up, anxiously awaiting whatever was to come.

I began making my way across the room and to the door ahead of me. I kept walking and walking, but I never seemed to get closer to the door. I began to run, but no matter how fast I went, I never got closer to the door.

Coming to my senses I eventually I blasted a portal beside the door, and another at my feet. The portal formed. Instead of landing beside the door, I just fell. I kept falling and falling, my destination unknown.

I fell longer than I had when GLaDOS and I fell from the shaft after Wheatley's take-over of the facility.

Eventually I slammed hard on the ground below me, bits of rubble crumbling down to the floor with me. I silently praised my long-fall boots and leg braces as I had many times before for bracing my fall.

I looked around, but couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. I stumbled around in the dark, looking for a passage; a light; a sign; anything to tell me where I was.

"1 in 6 children will be invaded by the Dutch."

I turned around; anxiously searching for the source of the familiar voice.

"The Fact core is the best core, and gives 100% factual facts."

I turned again, but couldn't see any sign of the core.

"The chance of you surviving is one in nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine…."

I eventually saw it hanging above me; a faint pink glow of the core's optic.

"Space is a non-existent theory composed by Swedish soldiers in hopes of returning home from war."

I jumped in an attempt to reach the core, but it was too high. I looked down at my feet, where I stood on a patch of conversion gel. I aimed a portal down at my feet; a blue oval lighting up beneath me.

I didn't know whether or not I could place a portal above the core, but I would certainly try.

I shot another portal above the core, and I dropped through the ground. I dropped on the core and fell with it to the ground. I held the core in my hands, looking at it for a long while.

"The Fact core is scientifically proven to be the best core."

Holding him made me think of Wheatley.

"Only the Fact core can provide the best facts."

Tears of frustration began to form in my eyes. Why did he have to stay? Why couldn't it have been _him _flung out into space, and not Wheatley? Anger welled up inside of me as I dropped the core. I soon gave it a kick.

"Do not kick the Fact core; Fact core is the greatest core."

_SHUT UP!_ I wanted to scream

"The Fact core is the greatest core," it repeated.

"**SHUT UP!**" I finally yelled. "**_The Fact core is NOT the best core, dammit!_**" It was the first time I had spoken in years.

I was so angry at the core for something he couldn't even help. I just wanted to scream into oblivion; fling him out into space to suffer like Wheatley didn't deserve to. I just wanted Wheatley back. I gave the core one last kick and walked away, not knowing where I was going or why. After a few steps I turned back to the core.

"_Fuck you,_" I whispered.

I turned and stepped forward again, and as I took another step the floor fell through, and I began to fall again. Down and down I went, falling and falling. I fell for a few minutes, and then fell through another floor. This time I soon slammed to another floor, winding me and rendering me breathless.

I gasped and stood up, and looked around for where I was. Nothing. I saw nothing. Everything was pitch black. My eyes were still wet from my encounter with the Fact core, and I wiped them with my arm. All of a sudden a bright light shone upon me. I turned to find its source above me.

Below the flashlight, I saw a single blue optic.I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Wheatley.

"Hello luv!" he said in his bouncy voice. All I could see of him was his flashlight and cheery blue optic. I ran to him. He was now across the wide room we were in. I ran faster, not bothering to look and determine whether there were any obstacles I needed to avoid. Even as I was picking up more speed, I never got any closer to him. I ran and ran, never leaving my spot on the floor. Wheatley turned and rode farther away on his management rail.

_Wheatley! Wait!_ I wanted to yell. No words came to my lips.

He turned one last time as I finally caught up to him, blinding me with his bright flashlight.

I woke to the bright sunlight piercing my eyes. I had fallen asleep with my head and arms on the companion cube.

I looked up and surveyed the land around me, which hadn't changed since I first fell asleep. I looked down at my arms. They were drenched with tears. I must have been crying in my sleep.

Then I remembered. The dream. The anger; the sadness; everything. My thoughts shifted to Wheatley, looking down at me once again from his management rail. I held back a cry of frustration and buried my face in my arms on the cube.


End file.
